This week’s news was absolutely dominated by Heartbleed—what it is, how it’s affecting people, and how to figure out if you’re safe. We’ve got all of that, plus a computer that perfectly ages you, a time capsule house untouched since the Mad Men era, and a sneaky subway camera used to steal credit card info, in this week’s best stories. Let’s dig in!
If you can believe it, Syfy may be getting back to its pre-name change roots. A notable addition to its plans for the next year is a new TV series based on a popular series of sci-fi books known as The Expanse. The first book Leviathan Wakes snagged…
We can’t enter the digital world like the Flynns did just yet, but thanks to the Oculus Rift, you may be able to experience what it’s like to duke it out in a light cycle. Custom video game machine maker Luis Sobral aka The Arcade Man made an arcade game featuring Tron’s famous vehicles based on the virtual reality headset.
Luis calls his project RiftCycles, a game where players take part in an “immersive virtual reality light cycle battle, fighting in an arena with their bikes until “deresolution”.” To make the experience more authentic, Luis also built two light cycle models out of cardboard and metal for players to ride on.
Watch out for CLU and head to Luis’ website for more on RiftCycles.
[via Gadgetify]
It’s a springtime Saturday, with the weather finally warming up for a lot of folks. Sounds like the perfect day for brunch with friends, right? Wrong. Instagram is down, and it’s causing a panic among aspiring food photographers. Just look at these poor lost souls.
Instagram seems to be having some technical difficulties updating its feeds right now. Guess you’ll just have to share your brunch pictures sans filter. [Instagram]
Portable printers are nothing new, but they’re usually as wide as A4 sheets. Because obviously they have to accommodate paper right? ZUta Labs looked at the problem differently. The most important part of a printer is the part that prints, i.e. the print head. So they took that part out of a traditional printer and made it fit on your paper instead of the other way around.
ZUta Labs’ PocketPrinter is a small robot that’s meant to go on top of the paper you want to print on. It uses omnidirectional wheels to navigate on paper, a small ink cartridge and a battery that lasts up to one hour per charge. You can send a file to be printed from your desktop computer, but Zuta Labs is also working on mobile apps so that you can wirelessly queue files from your mobile devices.
There are significant tradeoffs to its size though. The PocketPrinter’s pace is a glacial 1.2 pages per minute. Also, the lone ink cartridge means you can only print in grayscale. ZUta Labs is planning to make a full color model in the future.
Command-P a browser window and pledge at least $180 (USD) on Kickstarter by May 10 to get a PocketPrinter as a reward.
Someone’s doing dumb stuff with Smart cars in the Bay Area. A report says Los Angeles is beyond help. And did architect Thom Mayne’s new building damage a school’s legacy and the neighborhood it calls home? It’s all this week in What’s Ruining Our Cities.
Technology blogs and forums are rife with rumors about the upcoming launch of an Amazon Smartphone – coming as early as September. It’s a given that if they’re intending to … Continue reading
So, you understand what that terrible Heartbleed bug’s all about, but you can’t really explain it in words even a five-year-old can understand. Here’s what you should do when someone asks at your weekly family dinner, then: launch the XKCD website…
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